As the Saints spectacularly choked the game away, I couldn't help but shake my head and admire the darn Patriots.

While I no longer fear a 4th Brady championship, the Patriots are seemingly a lock to win the division yet again. Of course they are.

At 5-1, it would take a miserable second half to the season or a near run of the table by Miami to change things.

But wait, you may ask, what if Miami splits with New England?

The problem is that New England is already 2-0 in the division, with a home game against Buffalo and a road game against the Jets left. Patriots will not lose either of those games, meaning they will go 5-1 if Miami manages a split. That means Miami has to go 5-1 as well to force the next tie breaker. In order to do that, they have to win at Buffalo in December and sweep the Jets, two things that history shows are not easy for a Miami team to accomplish.

And if Miami can't win a tiebreaker with New England, they are going to have to finish with a better record.

There is only one way to get around this.

And that is if Miami goes into New England and beats Brady, which has never happened before (throwing out the 2005 game where Brady rested in the second half).

Assuming Miami wins next week (and seriously if they don't they are going 7-9 or 6-10 anyway) the Dolphins once again have the chance to make a national splash and show they are ready.

I wouldn't be all that concerned at the moment. Miami on the bye week is now sitting as one of 6 teams with a winning record in the AFC.... Denver/KC locking up one wild card, and us standing alone as the second.... Baltimore again had no running game. Cleveland did not look all that great against Detroit. The Texans are done. The chargers shouldn't fare that great tomorrow. At this point the focus should be on MAKING THE PLAYOFFS, which is 100% realistic after 6 weeks....

At this point, the big red circle should be on the Halloween game against the Bengals. They are beatable! And, the have a win against the Pats. Victory against them should make up for the Balt/NO losses since the Pats won those.

KC and Denver will play each other twice, meaning if one team sweeps (Denver) then KC will be down two, which will make up the difference there. If we stay 1/2 game up on the Ravens, Miami should roll into the playoffs as the 5 or 6 without having to worry bout the Pats.

I am not down playing the significance of the Pats winning the division, or anything. But a playoff appearance could be a very realistic goal..... And potentially matching up against the Colts (their only loss so far)...

Of the "contenders"SD- back a game, possibly 1.5 after monday, and we match up against them later onKC- they are ahead, but Denver divisional gamesJets- we get two stabs at them, and are .5 games upCleveland- .5 games up, with a tie breakerBaltimore- .5 games up, losing a tie breakerCincinati- down a game, with a future match upTennessee- up .5 games, no matchupNew England- down 1.5 games, with two matchupsIndy- down 1, possibly 1.5 with a tiebreakerHouston- up 1.5 no matchupBuffalo- up 1.5 with 2 matchups

8 winnable games left on the schedule, not factoring in the Bengals and New England gamesLets say Miami wins 7 of them with 4 losses....10-6 is still very possible with a wildcard berth

3-2 over then next 5 putting Miami at 6-4 is very realistic, factoring losses to Cincy and NE (4-1 would be great)

Long season to go. Miami is in the drivers seat for a wild card after 6 weeks. Could we REALLY expect more going into this season???

The next two weeks will be very telling...They got pretty beat up in this game and have some tough games coming...We need to take care of business in the division.We are both 2-1 conf. and they play Denver

New England was always the favorite to win the division. Factor in a few things.

Talib is now hurt, Mayo left in a sling, Amendola is toast...this goes along with Wilfork being done and Gronkowski coming back at less than 100%.

The "Any Given Sunday" and "Trap Game" cliches were perfect yesterday. The Saints probably went in figuring they would mow down a depleted NE offense. After the Stills TD they were prematurely celebrating and they played the final drive as though they were up 21. Tom Brady against a prevent defense is never a good thing and Ryan didn't dial up a great coverage design on that last play.

The big IF for Miami rests on 1. will the coaches move the pocket around for Tannehill and 2. will they run the ball where they can get success. You do that and this team is capable of winning most of their remaining games.

Outside of the New Orleans game Tannehill had top 10 QB numbers. The WR unit and Clay have been better than expected (as whole, Wallace has been disappointing). The defense was injured and has not lived up to expectations. Sturgis has been money 99% of the time.